What is the object of this headstrong policy? Reparations?
There is no financier of repute, in any quarter of the globe, who will agree that these methods will bring the Allies any contributions towards their impoverished resources.
At the August conference all the experts were in accord on this subject, but whilst these methods will produce no cash, they will produce an unmistakable crash.
My recollections of the August discussions enable me to follow with some understanding the rather confused reports which have so far reached me here.[2]
It is common ground amongst all the Allies that Germany cannot under present conditions pay her instalments.
It is common ground that she must be pressed to put her finances in order, and by balancing her budget restore the efficiency of her currency, so as to meet her obligations.
But M. Poincaré insisted that, as a condition of granting the moratorium, pledges inside German territory should be seized by the Allies.
These pledges consisted of customs already established, and of new customs to be set up on the Rhine and around the Ruhr, so that no goods should be permitted to pass from these German provinces into the rest of Germany without the payment of heavy customs dues.
The other proposed pledges were the seizure of German forests, of German mines, and of 60 per cent. of the shares in certain German factories.